(Part IX in The Theology of the Pentateuch)
Jesus Upholds the Law
As Christians, most of us feel at some liberty to disregard Old Testament laws that seem restrictive or strange. After all, it’s the Old Testament. But, if that is our approach, there are more than a few passages in the New Testament that should make us uncomfortable.
Romans 3:31
Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
Matthew 5:17–20
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Of course, there are other New Testament texts that seem to diminish the importance of the law, for example, Galatians 3:24–25: “The law was our guardian until Christ came. . . . But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.” How do we hold these things together? What does it mean that the law is “upheld,” that Jesus “fulfills” it, and that we are not “under a guardian”? These questions are far too big to deal with here, but I hope I can sketch out a helpful framework for thinking about the law as Christians.
Jesus Reframes the Law
First, we need to let Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount change our perspective. I’ve come to understand Jesus’s statement about the righteousness of the Pharisees differently recently (thanks to Jonathan Pennington’s excellent book The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing). Matthew 5:20 is often presented as if there is, at least theoretically, a legalistic path to salvation. A path where you are even more perfect than the Pharisees and therefore earn God’s favor (but they were “perfect,” Phil 3:6!). But what Jesus is saying is more subversive and counter-cultural. He is actually undercutting the Pharisees’s righteousness. He’s saying that the Pharisees are not in fact righteous at all—you think those guys with their fixation on external law-keeping are righteous!? Look, you’re gonna have to be more righteous than that if you want to find the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus goes on to unpack the heart-deep significance of the Law (Matt 7:21–23). In Matthew 5, for example, Jesus walks through representative commands and emphasizes their ongoing relevance by drawing out their true significance. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:27–28). I used to think that Jesus was intensifying these laws—raising the bar on law keeping so that even the Pharisees can’t keep them all—but I don’t really think that is quite right. Rather, I think that Jesus is diving to the heart of the law and showing that the Pharisaical understanding just misses the point to begin with. It’s always been about whole-hearted devotion to God (Deut 6:4–5).
When you think of the Law of Moses, do you understand it as 613 itemized, legally binding commands? Or do you understand the law as an organic whole that is communicating God, his character, and how to live with him? Jesus is not presenting a new law, i.e., “the law of Christ” as opposed to “the law of Moses.” But rather he is presenting a new interpretation of the law, i.e., the law of Christ as opposed to the law as understood by the scribes and Pharisees (Matt 23:23–24; 15:1–20).
According to Jesus’s interpretation, the Old Testament law was never meant to be a legalistic system, but rather heart-deep holiness and holistic law-keeping has always been required of God’s people.
Jesus Fulfills the Law
Second, we need to understand that Jesus hasn’t just reframed our understanding of the law—he lived it and accomplished its purpose in his life and death so that whole-hearted law keeping is unlocked for us in the Spirit (Gal 3:1–14). Through Christ’s work in his active obedience (sinless life) and passive obedience (innocent death) both the moral and ceremonial aspects of the law are fulfilled in the sense that they achieved their eschatological telos, their typological goal (Gal 3:23–4:7). Christ embodied the law. The law stands completed. It’s like a diploma hanging on a wall: none of the requirements of that degree go away, but none of them apply because all have been fulfilled. The degree stands completed and we are the honorary recipients. We all get to hang the diploma on our wall by faith, all its requirements having been accomplished for us by Christ.
So, with our perspective on the law changed and the benefits of the law unlocked by Christ, we can ask three questions when we read Scripture to help us live into the world of God’s law.
How does this law teach me about God and myself?
How has Christ fulfilled this law?
How might I live in Christ’s fulfillment?
Because the law has been accomplished by Christ, all of its commands and accomplishments are filtered through him. To draw on another analogy, Jesus is like a unique prism that the light of the law passes through on its way to our hearts. Everything gets refracted by Christ. Some of the light gets absorbed and its trajectory radically altered as it passes through the prism. The sacrificial laws, for example, stand completed “once and for all” as the author of Hebrews puts it (Heb 10:5–14). The light they shine on us comes in at a totally different angle and perhaps even in a different shade.
Other beams of light hit the prism and pass though to us on a more-or-less straight trajectory. The so-called moral laws (e.g., the Ten Commandments) are the prime example here. “Thou shalt not lie” still means don’t tell lies. God is characterized by perfect trustworthiness and we reflect his nature in Christ (Eph 4:25).
But other laws get refracted in substantial and perhaps unexpected ways. My favorite example here is where Paul takes the law about muzzling the ox when it is treading out the grain and applies the principle of the law to ministers who make their living by the gospel (1 Cor 9:8–12; cf. Deut 25:4). Does this law still “apply”? Of course, but its significance is far greater than good animal husbandry—although it is certainly not less than this. Instead, the law about oxen shows us something about God’s benevolent character to care for his servants and in Christ we reflect his character.
God’s law creates a perspective on the world that frames all of life in light of his character. Jesus upholds the law; it all still applies because it teaches us about God and points toward the work of Christ. Christ doesn’t change the heart of God’s law at all, but its expression often changes in light of his work. Our task is to join Christ in the Spirit by living out this whole-hearted devotion to God.
LORD, we thank you that you shape our world through your word. Give us eyes to see the world charged with your grandeur. May this vision of whole-hearted life in you transform our perspective so that we might live the law, not as a set of rules but as a dynamic reflection of your presence.
In the final installment of this series, I’ll give an example of how to think through these three interpretive questions with some particularly “irrelevant” Old Testament laws from Leviticus 19. Stay tuned!
Alex Kirk is an Assistant Professor of Old Testament at William Tennent School of Theology. He has been married to Meghan for over ten years, and currently lives in Durham, England, where he is nearing the completion of his Ph.D.. Alex is most passionate about leading people deeper into the literature of the Old Testament as the living and active word of the LORD to his people.